- Laurance Labadie
Laurance Labadie (1898 – 1975) was an American individualist anarchist and author. He was the son of American anarchist
Joseph Labadie .His writings include "Origin and Nature of Government" and "Anarchism Applied to Economics".
In "Anarchism Applied to Economics" Labadie writes: "In a world where inequality of ability is inevitable, anarchists do not sanction any attempt to produce equality by artificial or authoritarian means. The only equality they posit and will strive their utmost to defend is the "equality of opportunity". This necessitates the maximum amount of freedom for each individual. This will not necessarily result in equality of incomes or of wealth but will result in returns "proportionate to services rendered". Free competition will see to that." (Labadie's emphasis)
Labadie was a supporter of the right of
jury nullification in an anarchist society. He criticisedMurray Rothbard 's proposed judicial system which would not allow jury nullification, saying it would uphold, "the very economic evils which are at bottom the very reason for human contention and conflict." [quoted by Mildred J. Loomis and Mark A. Sullivan, "Laurance Labadie: Keeper Of The Flame", pp. 116-30, Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty, Coughlin, Hamilton and Sullivan (eds.), p. 124]References
External links
* [http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/llabadie.html "Origin and Nature of Government"] by Laurance Labadie
* [http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/laurance.html "Introduction" to "Laurance Labadie: Selected Essays"] byJames J. Martin
* [http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/LabadieLaurance/labadie1Med.jpgPhoto of Laurance Labadie with Benjamin Tucker's daughter Oriole]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
